Studies
by Frustration At Its Finest
Summary: College is the place where you realize that the most interesting things you'll ever learn during class come from people, not textbooks.


AN: I do not own Soul Eater, or any of it's characters. That right belongs to Atsushi Okubo. Rated T for some gore, just to be safe. Enjoy!

* * *

They met in anatomy class, ironically enough. For weeks, they sat beside each other in the front of the lecture hall, never speaking, merely observing and taking notes. Model students, really.

Sometimes she would glance at him in her periphery, silvery scars catching the light in almost intriguing ways, though she would never dare to ask outright of their origin. She is a woman of tact, if nothing else!

As expected, a day arrives in which their eccentric professor does not show. Many students leave the hall after twenty minutes of waiting, but he remains, even after all others have fled. She decides that a quiet hour and a half may be just what she needs to get a handle on that damned biology assignment.

So they sit in complete silence(other than the sound of scribbling pens and pages turning). Their lack of conversation is strangely comfortable. When she's finished organizing her notes, she just closes her binder, folding her hands on the desk, cracking each knuckle separately with a content sigh.

Beside her, she hears two loud 'pop's, seven 'crack's, and a 'SNAP'. She turns to the man on her right, bewildered.

He makes no comment, though the corner of his mouth turns up with a smirk, scars on his cheek crinkling. He looks younger when he smiles, she notices, even with the ashen hair and circles beneath his eyes. He glances at her from the corner of his eye, and her cheeks grow hot, but she does not look away.

"Yes?" he asks, eyes trained on his notebook page as he etches shapes she can't quite make out into the thick, yellowing pages. He sees her jump and turn back toward the whiteboard. She's amusing in how easily he affects her. He can't help the smile that spreads across his lips.

"Oh! I uh, I- I uhm… What are you drawing?"

It's not what he expected her to ask at all. Some people stick to the pleasantries, ask his name, ask his major. Others ask about his scars, as if they're his one defining trait.

She, on the other hand, asked of him something that actually shows a great deal of who he is as a person. He's excited.

Excited to see the appalled look on her face once he shows her.

He lays the book flat on their desk, spine creaking as it adjusts to the position, unused to being so open, much like himself actually.

On his pages are dripping, open bodies, faces made up only of three slits for eyes, once internal organs lain out around them, veins showing stark against whatever skin is not yet marred.

Off to the left: kidneys, stomach, intestines.

To the right: heart, liver, lungs, pancreas.

At the feet, there is a pile of 'useless'. Gallbladder, appendix, miscellaneous mess, visceral and almost pulsing on the page. He waits for a horrified shriek.

It does not come.

"Oh my goodness…"

_This is it, _he thinks.

"These.. they're amazing!"

_….What?_

"Are you an artist? There's such incredible detail, where did you learn to draw like this?"

He can't stop it. He starts outright cackling.

"Y-you," snort, " are an interesting creature, miss Mjolner. Very interesting indeed." He can hardly breath, the chuckles just will not stop!

"Hey! Wait.. should I take that as a compliment..? WAIT you didn't answer my question! I mean- Ah- Do you not want to tell me, or….?"

"No no, I just," cough, sniffle," I thought you weren't serious. My apologies for laughing. I merely didn't expect for you to react quite the way you did, and I was unprepared to react properly. I am not an artist. Not in the traditional sense, at least…"

She raises a questioning eyebrow, her patch shifting slightly higher on her cheekbone, prompting him to elaborate. She watches as his eyes linger on her patch almost wistfully. Strange boy, but she can't deny that he's caught her attention.

"I'm training to become a surgeon. Some would consider that a form of art. But really, I'm just interested in seeing how things work on the inside," he admits with a grin, and she smiles too, which he doesn't quite understand.

But he'd like to learn.


End file.
